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3D digital art

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Beginner's Guide to Character Creation in Maya

Beginner’s Guide to Character Creation in Maya continues 3dtotal’s tradition of offering helpful guides for beginners looking to step into the world of digital art. Talented 3D Animator and Trainer, Jahirul Amin, gives an insightful breakdown of how to model from scratch using Maya and Mudbox. Not only will you learn about the principles of rigging and animation, with a step-by-step guide detailing how to link the joints and create constraints and controls for animation, you will also learn how to correctly light and render your scene for porfolio-worthy presentation. Plus, in-depth chapters on anatomy will provide you with a solid foundation on which to develop your 3D character skills, so that by the end of this book you will have created your very own realistic walk cycle.

INTRODUCTION

Bringing you practical tuition and advice from an experienced 3D Trainer, this invaluable book offers a comprehensive guide to character creation in Autodesk’s very popular 3D software, Maya.

Beginner’s Guide to Character Creation in Maya continues 3dtotal’s tradition of offering helpful guides for beginners looking to step into the world of digital art. Talented 3D Animator and Trainer, Jahirul Amin, gives an insightful breakdown of how to model from scratch using Maya and Mudbox. Not only will you learn about the principles of rigging and animation, with a step-by-step guide detailing how to link the joints and create constraints and controls for animation, you will also learn how to correctly light and render your scene for porfolio-worthy presentation. Plus, in-depth chapters on anatomy will provide you with a solid foundation on which to develop your 3D character skills, so that by the end of this book you will have created your very own realistic walk cycle. With over 30 hours of downloadable videos, this is a book of amazing value that you won’t want to miss.

About the Author
Jahirul Amin is a 3D Trainer at Double Negative in London, UK. Prior to this, he was an Associate Lecturer at the prestigious National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University, where he was responsible for the Maya input on both the bachelor’s and master’s degree courses for several years.

CONTENT

01: Pipeline and interface
Introduction to the digital pipeline
Introduction to the Maya interface
Introduction to Mudbox interface
How the pipeline works
Creating a new project

02: Anatomy, modeling, and sculpting
The anatomical position
Overview of the skeleton
The bony landmarks
Muscles and tendons
Body fat and proportions
Introduction to the Maya
modeling tools
Using reference images in
Maya and Mudbox
Creating a base mesh in Maya
and Mudbox
Retopology in Maya and UVs

03: Texturing and shading in Maya and Mudbox
Skin and eyes
Checking for UV distortion
Unwrapping our character
Preparing the reference images
Painting the color map
Creating the additional maps
Look development

04: Rigging and deformation in Maya
Joint mechanics
Muscles and motion
Planning a rig
Rigging fundamentals
Rigging the torso
Rigging the neck and head
Rigging the arms
Rigging the hands
Rigging the legs
Rigging the feet
Cleaning up the rig
Adding the volume joints
Skinning
Finalizing the rig

06: Lighting and rendering in Maya
Light and color
Gamma and linear workflow
Creating a look development
environment and lighting

Closing words...AcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex

...................................................................

Endorsements

“Jahirul masterfully describes every foundation an artist needs to know to create believable characters, both artistically and technically. Surely the knowledge contained in this book transcends the software – it can and should be used as support material for digital artists”Richard Maegak
Technical Director at Techno Image | riggerman.co

“A must-have book for any artist who is new to creating characters in Maya. It covers a lot of great techniques both in modeling and rigging/animation, and will certainly kick-start your career as a character creator. It’s the type of book that I was looking for when I first started off making characters”Sven Juhlin
Freelance Character Artist | daybreakcg.com

“It is a good start for a beginner 3D artist: very straightforward, clean, and easy to read and understand. I would strongly recommend this to anyone interested in character creation in Maya!”Igor Kudryavtsev
Asset Supervisor at Glukoza Production | eagerart.net

Preview

PREVIEW

For a preview of this book, simply click the pages of the book below.
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This book is for me one of a kind because it's the only Book who explains every step you need in a very precise way. But not only the book is the good part the Video Tutorials are a also a very good addition to it. Worth it's price.

Great first book that I bought from 3DTotal, and not the last one ! Review by Murat(Posted on 27/02/2017)

Amazingly complete

Value

Beginner's Guide to Character Creation in Maya

I bought this book because I had follow Jahirul Amin in a few tuto and find him amazing. The way he explain things is simple but efficient.If you are looking for a solid base to start with your 3d characters creation this book is for you!! This book it's my REFERENCES book and worth the investment!Review by Erick(Posted on 15/01/2016)

Great book!

Value

A great book that covers areas all across the character creation pipeline from modeling to texturing and much more. Suitable for all skill levels, whether you want a refresher on a topic or to learn something new, this book is written in a very clear and easy to follow manner.Review by June(Posted on 05/07/2015)

usefu for character modeling beginner

Value

this book is step by step to explain how model a character， this is suitable for beginner，also good for expertReview by wilxan(Posted on 05/06/2015)

Great book

Value

The book offers a step by step guides on things such as texturing, modeling and rigging.I would recommend this for anyone interested in improving and learning new skills to do with maya, mudbox , photoshop and nuke.Review by Alistair(Posted on 04/06/2015)

Excellent book

Value

Great to finally get a guide to Maya that I can actually follow. The steps are very clearly written( and followable), and the pictures and all the videos made a huge difference. \the fundamentals part for each chapter has really helped clear up why you actually do what you do in Maya. The anatomy bit was really helpful for modelling. Really recommend itReview by margaret(Posted on 03/06/2015)

This is a GREAT BOOK!!!

Value

Hey guys and gals!!

I just bought this book and I LOVE IT!! If you are looking to get started with characters and don't know where to start, this book is for you!! Instruction covers every aspect of character creation from anatomy, to topology, to texturing, rigging and posing, all the way to lighting and rendering a final animation for your reel!! Do get this book!! It is a MUST HAVE for your collection!! It will definitely deepen your knowledge of character creation and if you study it like I have you will hopefully land that dream job making characters!! Good luck!Review by Rafael Duffie(Posted on 03/06/2015)

Great

Value

Awesome stuff !!!!!!!!!Review by Andreas(Posted on 02/06/2015)

Great

Value

Awesome stuff!!!!!!!!!!Review by Andreas(Posted on 02/06/2015)

Very good with step by step guide

Value

Very good, with references to human anatomyand step by step guide to character creation!Review by Franco(Posted on 09/05/2015)

A wealth of well-presented knowledge

Value

This is a well-written book that will teach you a lot about most of the aspects of creating and rigging a model of a human, pretty much from start to finish. Though written for Maya and Mudbox the principles could be extended to whatever software you're working with.

I'm quite happy with this purchase and impressed with the writing and printing quality.

You can view the entire book (low res) via the Preview tab.

Review by animatedly(Posted on 06/05/2015)

definte must for artists

Value

Good book with step by step instructions for not just the beginner....Review by Barbara(Posted on 06/05/2015)

Very good buy, with references to human anatomy , such as the steps to make the various parts of the body of a character , and how texturing and riggin model .
Maybe they would fail me to be a perfect book are references to a female body, but still very good buy.Review by Adol(Posted on 06/05/2015)

An excellent book

Value

This book offers an important tool to improve your 3D skills with exercices step by step. I think It's esential in your library.Review by Pau(Posted on 22/04/2015)